Commander John Mathias, RD, RNR, a native of Youghal, Ireland, was known in Montreal as captain of the Laurentic, a ship which regularly ran the Montreal-to-Liverpool route. First launched in 1909, Laurentic was a ship of the White Star Line, which had taken over the Dominion Line Canadian Service for which Mathias had earlier commanded a vessel named Vancouver. In 1914, H.M.S. Laurentic was commissioned by the Canadian Expeditionary Force for troop transport; she was painted grey and joined a convoy of 32 ships that brought 35,000 Canadian soldiers to Europe that October. With Acting Commander Mathias in charge, she was then converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) with eight 6-inch and two 6-pounder naval guns. For the first 27 months of the war, she was on patrol duty in the East. In late November 1916 she left Halifax for Liverpool carrying officers and volunteer reserves of the Royal Canadian Navy. Two days before reaching port, a coal fire broke out in the hold not far from the munitions, trapping some of the men. Commander Mathias rushed to try to save them but a fire-warped iron beam fell on him, fracturing his skull and injuring some of his fellow rescuers. He died Dec. 4 but because of military regulations, the message was not relayed to Liverpool; Mrs. Mathias and her children met the ship expecting a happy reunion after her husband’s two-year absence, only to be told of his death. Mathias received the Royal Naval Reserve Officer’s Decoration.

Frederick David Mathias was born in Montreal on March 2, 1913. He attended Selwyn House School, Montreal and Ashbury College, Ottawa. Mathias studied architecture at M.I.T. in Boston from 1931 to 1936, graduating in 1936. His thesis was a Recreational Centre for St. Helen's Island in Montreal. From 1936 to 1937 Mathias worked in the office of Sir Astin Webb in London, England. He joined Montreal architect D.J.Spence in 1937. Between 1940 and 1945 he joined the armed forces and fought in Italy. He returned to the firm (Spence, Mathias & Burge) in 1945. His work includes residential and commercial architecture. “The Well House,” 555 Victoria Ave., Westmount (1954) is included in Montréal’s Little Mountain / La Petite Montagne, a book that draws on the work of Montreal’s greatest architects. Mathias also designed numerous buildings for the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, the Phillips Square Building, and the façade of the Seagram’s Building on Peel Street. Fine architectural renderings by David Mathias in competition drawings at MIT and in project drawings, reflect the influence of his studies, and of the British architectural tradition learned in the office of Sir Astin Webb. David Mathias died in December 1997, at the age of 84.